Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The married woman's private medical companion. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
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![by their force the liquor amnii flows out, the head of the foetus is engaged in the pelvis, it goes through it, and soon passes out by the valve, the folds of which disappear ; these different phenomena take place in succession and continue a certain time; they are ac- companied with pains more or less severe ; with swelling and softening of the soft parts of the pelvis and externa] genital parts, and with an abundant mucous secretion in the cavity of the vagina. All these circumstan- ces, each in its own wray, favor the passage of the foetus. To facilitate the study of this action, it may be divided into several periods. The first period of child-birth,—It is con- stituted by the precursory signs. Two or three days before child-birth a flow of mucus takes place from the vagina, the external genital parts swell and become softer ; it is the same with the ligaments that unite the bones of the pelvis ; the mouth of the womb flattens, its opening is enlarged, its edges become thinner ; slight pains, known under the name of flying pains, are felt in the loins and abdomen. Second period.—Pains of a peculiar kind come on ; they begin in the lumbar region, and seem to be propagated towards the womb or the rectum; and are renewed only after intervals of a quarter or half an hour each. Each of them is accompanied with an evident contraction of the body of the uterus,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21014036_0201.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
